Furniture waste is a growing concern as consumers and companies seek to reduce their carbon emissions. According to the EPA, in the United States alone, we throw away approximately 12 million tons of furniture every year, leaving it to rot in landfills. Most of them are under fifteen years old. Recycling furniture can be difficult, mainly because selling and moving it can be a pain.
Clothing companies like Poshmark, Dpop, and Thredup thrive on online thrifting, but furniture thrifting is much more complicated simply because of the size of the items. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace list furniture, but it’s up to the consumer to decide how the items will be picked up and delivered. This can be costly and potentially dangerous as strangers invite strangers into their homes.
AptDeco is offering a new business model. The New York-based startup is an online marketplace for buying and selling used furniture, offering pickup and delivery of items. It also partners with major retailers such as West Elm and Pottery Barn to sell floor-standing models or resell returned merchandise.
Reham Fagiri, founder and CEO of AptDeco, said: “By extending the life cycle of furniture, it will be better for the environment overall, both in terms of less wood being cut from forests and in terms of reducing the supply chain associated with producing furniture.
For large furniture retailers, there is huge waste in returns and the reverse logistics involved – from costs to transportation emissions. Instead, once a customer requests a return, partner brands now sell their returned merchandise on AptDeco directly from the customer’s home. AptDeco uses its own resale profile to price items so they sell quickly (usually within a week). They can then retrieve the items from the returner’s home and deliver them directly to the resale buyer without having to take those returned items to a distribution center first.
Kathleen O’Brien purchased her dining table, TV stand, and headboard from AptDeco.
“Literally, the world is kind of on fire, so anything I can do to reduce my own footprint in the world is what I’m trying to do, like in every aspect of my life, especially furniture,” Au said. Brian.
Although the furniture is sold at a 50% discount over new furniture, the service comes at a price.
“The commission we earn ranges from 15% to as high as 60%, depending on the product, brand, condition and many different variations therein,” Fagiri said.
The company operates throughout the United States except Alaska and Hawaii. The company’s network of carriers in numerous markets makes its expansion potential very attractive to investors like Initialized Capital.
Zoe Perret, partner at Initialized Capital, said: “Contributing to the circular economy through logistics operations is a great example of the type of climate-resilient companies we believe have long-term viability in the next phase of climate technology.
AptDeco is also backed by Comcast Ventures, Y Combinator, Hearst Lab, Great Oaks Venture Capital and Soma Capital. The company has raised total funding of $14.5 million to date.
Fagiri said the company has removed more than 19 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from the environment in the 10 years since its founding. This equates to approximately 6.5 million cars being taken off the road.
CNBC producer Lisa Rizzolo contributed to this article.
